


The Great Fall

by FailSafePrime



Series: Sherlock Minifics [8]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Dench!M is Mummy, He Really Doesn't Hold a Grudge, John doesn't hold a grudge, John is James, Kinda, M/M, Mentions of past JohnLock, Post-Reichenbach, no really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-01
Updated: 2014-08-01
Packaged: 2018-02-11 08:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2061888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FailSafePrime/pseuds/FailSafePrime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Reichenbach Fall, John Disappears. Mycroft Spots A Familiar Face Joining a Shootout During M's Hearing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Reichenbach Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Ties in to [The Empty House"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/442533)

When Sherlock fakes his death, Mycroft endures a scolding from Mummy. Then he finds out that John has gone missing.

Mycroft doesn't tell Sherlock.

The first time John visits Sherlock's grave with Mrs. Hudson is the last time John is seen in London. Sometimes, Mycroft's men will report a glimpse of a man who resembles John Watson, but blonde haired, blue eyed doctors are fairly common in London. Sometimes, Mycroft's agents abroad report glimpses of a man matching John Watson's description, but it's a big world, and there are plenty of blonde haired and blue eyed doctors out there.

He sends Mrs. Hudson rent money for 221B even though John and Sherlock are no longer there. He keeps sending Mrs. Hudson rent money after Sherlock returns.

Mycroft puts more time into tracking John by the postcards that he sends Mrs. Hudson, but a year after Sherlock returns, the postcards stop. Mycroft doesn't stop searching.

He finds John almost four years and seven months after Sherlock's Fall at Mummy's funeral, surrounded by MI6 Agents.

~*~*~

Even after John leaves, Mrs. Hudson receives rent money for 221B from Mycroft Holmes. Sometimes he sends people to keep the flat tidy, as if the empty flat is waiting for Sherlock and John to come home. She receives postcards sometimes, and even though they contain small talk about the weather and tourist traps, she knows they are from John. He puts JHW in the return to sender section. He sends her one card every two months for four years. And then the cards stop. Six months later, she receives a card from Shanghai. This has a very short explanation on it, "Sorry. Was ill. JHW." Mrs. Hudson breathes a sigh of relief.

The cards keep coming until Mrs. Hudson dies.

~*~*~

Sherlock comes home after three years. 

Mummy scolds him.

He finds 221B almost just as he left it. John's things aren't there. John isn't there. Sherlock doesn't revert to his drug habit. He wants to be clean when Mycroft brings John back.

Sherlock stays clean. He solves crimes.

Ms. Hudson shares John's postcards from John with him.

They suddenly stop.

Mummy dies six months later, and John is at her funeral. He's changed, Sherlock can tell without deducing it because John doesn't look twice at Sherlock or Mycroft. He turns around and leaves with a group of MI6 Agents.

Mrs. Hudson receives postcards again.

~*~*~

A month after Vauxhall Cross is bombed, Mycroft is attending a hearing concerning the Director of MI6. An attack occurs, and Mycroft spots a familiar face. His hair has been cropped close to his skull, there are more lines on his face than ever, and he's grown thinner and has the pallor of a man who has been ill for a long time, but the agent who comes in shooting to rescue M is unmistakable.

John Watson.

He is blocked at every turn by Gareth Mallory and the new Quartermaster when he tries to get information about John, about the agent that had vanished with M.

M dies somewhere in Scotland. Mycroft isn't sure, the details are sketchy. The agent, James Bond, is alright though.

Mycroft and Sherlock attend Mummy's funeral. John, as James Bond, is there. The MI6 Agents present close ranks. Mycroft may be Mummy's son, but they don't let him or Sherlock anywhere near John.

No.

Not John.

James.

Mycroft stops looking.

~*~*~

Sherlock meets with John face to face only once after Mummy dies. John hits him once. Only once. Then they talk, and Sherlock is forced to let go when John leaves and Sherlock cannot follow and Mycroft cannot reach him. Sherlock receives a postcard from John after that. There is only one word. "LIVE." Sherlock knows that what they had is gone.

Sherlock does as he's told. He takes care of himself and stays clean. He solves crime. Occasionally, he returns to the flat to find a cup of tea and a tupperware box of food. He eats it obediently. He keeps body parts in spill proof tupperware boxes that are labelled. He talks to the empty flat. He takes tea with Mrs. Hudson and takes care of her after her first heart attack.

John sends flowers, a fruit basket, and tea.

When Mrs. Hudson dies, no more postcards come. But he sees John more often.

John makes small talk about the weather, about rugby, and complains about the tea overseas. Sherlock tells him about his cases. John nods, smiles, and says just as sincerely as the first time, "That's amazing."

They stay friends.

~*~*~

TBC

~*~*~


	2. When the Sky Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of the Fall, it was M who took care of John and let John become James.

In the Aftermath of the Fall, it was M who took care of John. M, who had been Sherlock and Mycroft's Mummy, who insisted that John called her Mummy also when Sherlock introduced John to her on Sherlock's birthday. When Sherlock died, Mycroft turned his attention elsewhere because John didn't want to so much as see him, and M took in John. When John pulled himself out of the bottle after two months, they talked.

John went to visit Sherlock's grave with Mrs. Hudson. One week later, he packed his things, kissed Mrs. Hudson on the cheek, and was moved into a house in Belgravia. His identity is changed, and John starts accustoming himself to being called James.

One month later, after a barrage of tests and training, James Bond was dressed in a Saville Row suit and on a plane to Germany. The mission is arduous from the very get go, and after a week of parties, more than one gunfight, and a car chase across Stuttgart, he is exhausted. While waiting for his flight back to England, he buys a postcard from the airport gift shop and writes a bit of nonsense about the german countryside, signs it "JHW" and sends it to Mrs. Hudson.

It's a huge risk, so he doesn't do it often. Sometimes he's in London and catches a glimpse of Mrs. Hudson's face when she receives the cards, and she looks so relieved that he keeps sending her cards every two months. Sometimes every month when he's having a hard time.

He gains a reputation as a bit of a wild card. A loose cannon. He gains a reputation as an incurable flirt and a womanizer. He kills people, sleeps around and drinks too much. And out the corner of his eye, he sees a flash of a blue scarf, the black coat. And then he tries to drown the vision of pale skin, dark hair, luscious lips, and a long neck in sex and alcohol. M give him a hard look, but doesn't say anything, and James does whatever it takes to complete his mission. In the space of a year, his mission record becomes quite extensive.

Two years after Sherlock died, he meets Vesper. She is tall, dark, and clever, and reminds him so much of Sherlock, that he falls hard and fast. He sends a postcard to Mrs. Hudson singing Vesper's praises. It was too good to last. Vesper's betrayal is a knife to the heart. He goes on a worldwide killing spree for revenge. That year's postcards carry only his initials. He's too angry to write more.

A year after Vesper, he realizes that her name is less a stab to the heart and more of a jab in the side. He scoffs at himself. A rebound. A rebound from Sherlock, whom he could have taken as a lover if he had been more honest with himself. He admits as much in his postcard to Mrs. Hudson. He goes back to drowning himself in sex and drink, and his mission record continues to remain impressive.

Sherlock returns to London, and James ignores M's urging to meet with her sons just once, and throws himself into the work.

A year after Sherlock returns, James is shot off the top of a train in Istanbul.

James Doesn't quite remember what happened next. He has a hazy memory of drifting, quiet voices, and strange hands tending him. James Bond wakes in a small rural hospital and after finding out that he'd been there for almost two weeks, signs out AMA after paying his bills via emergency account under a different name.

Five months later, James was living in a hut on the beach. In the mornings, he swam in water still warm despite the lateness of the year, stretching healing muscles and accustoming them to the strain. It was a mind numbing routine. Everyday he ate fish fresh off the fire or from the pan that had been pulled out of the water that same day. Some nights, when he couldn't help but remember pale skin and dark hair and observations spat one after the other like machine gunfire, he went down to the shack just down the beach that served as the local bar for a drink and to pick up a woman for the night. James could almost believe that he had never done anything else in his life.

~*~*~

The day the news about the bombing of Vauxhall Cross broke, James had fallen asleep at the bar. Seeing as he'd made the owner a rich man by the standards of the area, he's woken to find his pockets unpicked and his belongings and person unmolested. He immediately arranged a flight back to England.

~*~*~

Three days after returning to England, James meets the new Q, and is sharply reminded of Sherlock. No. He actually thinks for a moment that it is Sherlock who has sat down beside him in front of the painting of The Fighting Temeraire. Then logic kicks in because the boy is too young, too cocky, and Sherlock would never be caught dead in the clothes the boy was wearing. Really, even the costumes that Sherlock wore undercover were brand name. The, the boy was not Sherlock. It didn't matter that they shared similar features.

~*~*~

James is just arriving at the airport in Shanghai when he thinks of Mrs. Hudson. He makes a detour to the gift shop to pick up a postcard and scribbles a halfhearted excuse of having been ill--it's no excuse, no matter that it was true--and finds a postbox to drop it in.

~*~*~

A week later, he is back in England, and he realizes that the new Quartermaster is simultaneously more like and unlike Sherlock than he first anticipated. As Q brags about being the one to invent the program used to encrypt Silva's computer, James swallows a heartfelt remark of, "That's amazing!" but can't stop the small smile that creeps across his lips. He knows he's developed an infatuation with his new Quartermaster then.

Several hours later, James is in the middle of a firefight in the courtroom where M's hearing is being held. He barely makes note of Mycroft Holmes evacuating the room with the rest of the civilians. Then he is taking M away, out of London, and he's asked Q to lay a trail of breadcrumbs for Silva.Two days later, they arrive at Skyfall, the estate bequeathed by the first James Bond to all the other 007s to come after. When James retired--or more likely--died, Skyfall would go to the next James Bond, his successor. If he lived long enough to retire, he'd be allowed to keep the name of James Bond (or he could do what his predecessors did and keep only the surname but using their first names), and he could technically live in Skyfall and raise a family in it, much as one of his predecessors, Andrew Bond--whose son, ironically named James, was slated to become the next 007--had.

(John who became James would receive a message from his slated successor, the James Bond who had grown up in that house, a few weeks later thanking him for destroying the hunting lodge as he'd never liked the house anyway. He scolds him for getting the Aston Marton blown up though. Understandable, because the Aston Marton was a 007 trademark.)

~*~*~

James attends M's funeral. Tanner, Mallory, Moneypenny, Q, and the other Double-Os close ranks around him, M's favorite, when Mycroft and Sherlock start trying to approach him. It takes Q, who turns out to also be a Holmes (Baby Holmes, James thinks ironically when he finds out), six months to convince James that he should meet with Sherlock at least once, if only for closure. James tells Q that he'll think about it and leaves to destroy a weapons trader in Budapest. He nearly dies because of bad information from the analysts, and Q just barely gets him out alive. After a month spent recovering, he agrees to meet with Sherlock. As John, not James.

Once face to face with Sherlock, John realizes that knowing that Sherlock is alive is different from _knowing_ that he's alive. Old grief, less concentrated from time apart, wells up, and anger at the both of them for squandering time leads James to punch Sherlock. He hits his old friend once, and only once, and then they go to Angelo's for old times sake. Over pasta and wine, they talk, and it's clear that they have both changed. Their relationship has changed. When Sherlock first left, they had been dangerously codependent on each other, but time apart had forced Sherlock to grow and mature, and John had learned to move on. John knows that Sherlock knows that the relationship they once had was gone because not once does Sherlock beg for John to move back into 221B. They part on good terms.

That week, Mrs. Hudson is not the only person to receive a postcard from James when he is in Niamey in Niger. Mrs. Hudson's postcard complains about the heat. Sherlock's postcard has only one word: "LIVE." As far as James can tell, Sherlock does his best.

James realizes he is properly in love with Q, the year Mrs. Hudson had her first heart attack. Q let James know, and even though James was in Belize at the time, he arranged through Q to send a lovely flower arrangement to Mrs. Hudson's room at the hospital, and a large fruit basket to 221A and lots and lots of tea when she is cleared to return home.

Q rolls his eyes at him and mutters, "Finally," and kisses him two years after Skyfall.

James and Q take care of each other during missions and even when there are no missions. They have Thank-God-You're-Alright/Thank-God-I'm-Alive sex when James barely makes it out of a bad mission by the skin of his teeth. They make love when James comes home unhurt and brings back all of his equipment undamaged. James rebuilds Skyfall for his successor.

They send Sherlock food and tea during cases. They taunt Mycroft with a cake that is actually a watermelon frosted with whipped cream. They send a cook and a cleaning crew to Mrs. Hudson's flat when she's feeling particularly bad and cannot do housework.

When Mrs. Hudson dies, James stops sending postcards. He does visit Sherlock every once in a while to keep him from being lonely. James makes small talk about the weather and the horrible tea that he gets when out of the country. Sherlock tells him about his cases, and James says just as sincerely as the first time, "That's amazing!"

They stay friends.

~*~*~

James is the only Double-Oh of his generation to reach retirement. Somehow, James lives long enough to retire as a field agent. He keeps the name James Bond. He'd been James Bond for almost twenty years, and can no longer fathom being John again. James and Q have celebratory sex.

Sherlock sends him a fruit basket and Mycroft gives him a house.

James is grateful, but he rather likes Q's present more. After all, how often can a Double-Oh claim to retire and still be able to smack down the oversized egos of wet-behind-the-ears agents?

~*~*~

Finite


End file.
